Groomed by a Facebook predator

The friend she’d met on the internet who understood her so well claimed he was 17, and she believed him. But when they met after a year of chatting on Facebook and Mxit she knew he was a lot older.

But that didn’t stop Kaylene Lewis (14) getting into his car and driving off with him. Jean-Lyle Oliver (35) is now being charged with kidnapping after police found her at his house in Durban.

After 10 frantic days for her dad, Quinton (38), and grandmother, Bernadette (60), she’s now back home.

“I thought I was doing all I could to protect her but you can’t watch your kids all the time. There are monsters who want to steal them away,” the upset single father says.

Kaylene leaps to Jean-Lyle’s defence. She says he was kind, unlike her previous boyfriend, a teen, of whom her father was unaware. They dated for about a month before she broke up with him. “He didn’t even remember to give me flowers for our anniversary.”

But Jean-Lyle brought her flowers every time he went grocery shopping. “He fed me, bathed me and left me alone to write. I never felt like I was a prisoner.”

Read more of Sulaiman Philip and Herman Scholtz’s article in YOU 21 June 2012.